Hope Springs (Meryl Streep)

(Amazon UK link)

We have two films called ‘Hope Springs’, with entirely different storylines. We decided to watch the one featuring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones as a married couple, which we first saw in August 2014. We couldn’t remember much about it, although I had a vague recollection of the couple sitting on a couch in a therapist’s office.

It turns out that a significant part of the film includes this particular scene - or, rather, scenes - although the therapist is a marriage enrichment expert rather than a therapist as such. But the concept is similar.

Meryl Streep is, as one would expect, superb. Her character is the middle-aged Kay who is going through a bit of a mid-life crisis. That’s not to downplay it in any way. She and her husband Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) have a daily routine that involves her getting up early, making his breakfast, watching him eat it, then when he’s left for work she tidies up the kitchen and goes to her own work in a boutique.

In the evenings he usually watches TV and drops off to sleep… and then they go up to bed, in separate bedrooms. It’s clear that all intimacy and romance have gone from the marriage, although they coexist amicably enough. Kay decides that something needs to change, and Arnold is persuaded, entirely against his wishes, to attend a marriage enrichment seminar with Dr Feld (Steve Carell). It’s very well done, and the chemistry between the two main characters - both positive and negative - is realistic.

There’s not a great deal of plot, although the ending could have gone various ways: we weren’t sure if the ‘enrichment’ would help Kay and Arnold rekindle some of their earlier feelings, or whether it would drive them apart. Or, indeed, they could have returned home and continued their life as it was previously. But plot doesn’t matter; it’s character-based, exploring emotions and the reasons some marriages grow stale without any serious problems arising. There’s a great deal that’s thought-provoking, and also several humorous moments. Once or twice we even laughed aloud at the clever scripting or timing.

We had not remembered just how explicit some of the conversations are, as Dr Feld probes more deeply into what has gone wrong, and what used to be good about the marriage and the couple’s sex life. It’s well done; it could have felt intrusive but just manages to avoid that, while asking some decidedly pointed questions. There are no bedroom scenes or nudity, and not a great deal of bad language, which is probably why the film is given a 12A rating - but I would not be comfortable with a twelve-year-old seeing this film. We would have rated it at least 15. However, since the main characters are in their fifties, it’s unlikely to appeal to anyone under the age of at least thirty.

We enjoyed watching it again, and would recommend it to any couple who have been together for at least ten years or so, whether or not they are feeling any stress or monotony in their relationship.

There are quite a few 'extras' with our DVD; we watched most of them, including some repeated scenes, some background into the making of the film, and one deleted scene.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's DVD Reviews